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It Happened This Week in L.A. History

The Griffith Observatory opens. The country’s third planetarium is the vision of astronomy-loving Colonel Griffith J. Griffith – Thank (pun intended) heavens he only wrote one Griffith into the park’s title.

In the 1960s, the Griffith served as a training ground for NASA’s first lunar missions. It would later host the world’s largest astronomically accurate image, of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The observatory’s perch on Mount Hollywood has lent over 73 million visitors impeccable views of the Hollywood Sign, Downtown, and the galaxies beyond.